Local area networks (LANs) have become widely accepted and used within many and various industries as a way to interconnect many work stations and/or personal computers (PCs) to allow them to share resources such as data and applications without the need for an expensive mainframe computer and its associated multiple attached terminals. One widely accepted LAN arrangement is an "Ethernet" LAN, which is defined in the IEEE 802.3 standard.
With the widespread acceptance of LANs and the continuing acceleration of technology, the demand for LAN arrangements with higher and higher transfer rates continues unabated. Two 100 Megabit per second (Mbps) LANs are extending the reach of the installed base of 10 Mbps Ethernet LANs. Although this increased transfer rate is desired, it often comes at the expense of replacing existing 10 Mbps equipment with new more expensive 100 Mbps equipment. However, some LANs may run with both types of equipment installed. It would be convenient to have a physical layer interface device that would operate at both transfer rates.
The present invention provides a LAN physical layer interface device that is capable of operating at both transfer rates in a cost effective and versatile manner.